WORSHIP LEADERS
YOU MAY NOT HAVE THE TITLE, BUT YOU’ RE STILL A PASTOR | Matt Miller
Photo by Memento Media on Unsplash
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Depending on your church, that might mean cards, gift cards, a special lunch, a social media post, or maybe one of those slightly awkward moments during a Sunday gathering where the pastor has to stand on the platform while everyone applauds.
And listen— I’ m all for appreciating pastors. Ministry is hard. Pastors carry things most people in the congregation will never see. They walk with people through marriages, funerals, hospital rooms, difficult decisions, family crises, and everything in between. So yes, appreciate your pastor.
But this October, I want to talk to another group of people: the ones who may never have the word“ Pastor” in their title.
Maybe your title is Worship Leader, Worship Director, Music Director, Creative Arts Director, Production Director, or Tech Director. Maybe you don’ t have a title at all. But if you’ re leading people in the local church, there’ s a good chance you’ re doing something far more important than selecting songs, building Planning Center schedules, fixing Ableton tracks, or trying to figure out why the acoustic guitar is suddenly humming. You’ re pastoring people. And sometimes we need to be reminded of that.
One of the easiest traps for worship leaders is allowing Sunday to become the job. We have a service to plan, songs to choose, musicians to schedule, lyrics to check, transitions to plan, charts to prepare, and rehearsals to lead. Then, somewhere around Thursday afternoon, somebody texts,“ Hey, I forgot to block this weekend out. I’ m actually going to be out of town.” Awesome. Happy Thursday to me.
The Sunday-to-Sunday rhythm of worship ministry can become relentless. There is always another service coming. As soon as
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